Urland - a (mostly) rural Coastline

[RickD]

Real eyecandy it is indeed.   

And when it comes to edge blending, nobody can compete with Battlecat at the moment.

[kwakelaar]

These are great looking pictures Bernhard, and for your benefit I keep the tile next door in mind when looking at the shots from the border.

[canyonjumper]

Bernhard, this was a great update! I really liked the detailing, and as far as seeing the edge, your excellent pics make up for it

                Your friend,
                               Jordan

[art128]

Wow, Bernard, great work with that new are there my friend ! The eye candy detailing is for sure awesome, as usual I love the mix of trees you used there. I really like the picture with the two wind powerplants and the cows in the background. I'm sure this picture will win more than a round in the picture competition ! Btw, talking about those two, I think they're a bit too close to each other, but maybe it's because I live in a big city so that I don't see that everyday ! 

Take care,
-Arthur.

PS - If you want to make a edge mosaic, you should first modify your background pictures by a black blank instead of the purple-blue gird. Then after you'll have to use Photoshop or the GIMP to make the mosaic ! 

[Battlecat]

Nice update!  Great batch of detailing throughout this update.  The shed at the edge of the map is a great touch!

[Nardo69]

Some Quick Replies ...

@RickD: Thanks for the compliment! And you're right about that ...

@kwakelaar: Thanks for the compliment! Actually I haven't begun there ... which on the other hands means that everything is possible! 

canyonjumper Thanks for the compliment! You know, usually I focus a bit away from the edge but that small area was just too ... temptive ... 

art128: Thanks for the compliment!
Actually I put them rather close to each other by intention.
Wind direction is changing even for the main direction within given ranges. However the windmalls I saw didn't seem to habe a turnable head. As a civil enginer I would presume that a turnable head would be too costy.
However wind power doesn't produce a steady flow of electricity which is wanted however. So my theory is that they put three windmills with an angle to each other in order to get an optimised steady flow of electricity even if the wind changes slightly its direction.

@Battlecat: Thanks for the compliment! You know it just fitted in there between the gravel path and the fence... if I just had your skills in edge blending ... 

... and some words on my own behalf:

As I stated earlier I do have technical problems at the moment and cannot play Sc4 any more. I think I am going to be able to solve these problems in the  near future, however it'll take its time for me to show you new pictures.

Because of this I might put Urland on hiatus for an undefinate time untill I can show you new developements. The alternative would be to show you some older developements which don't have the same quality as the last updates.

So it's up to you: waiting untill I can go on for an uncertain period of time or some older picture that don't reach the standarts set by the last update? It's up to you ...


Bernhard 

[RickD]

Hi Bernhard, the quality of your recent updated were so high that I believe updates with less quality will still be really good. I'd say keep 'em coming!

[Nardo69]

@RickD: Okaaay ... but don't say I haven't warned you! 

OK, some of you may the first update in the series of older maps. It's my not really successful entry in the first SC4Devotion Thematic Competition. It is part of Urland and I intended to show it here, too, but never did. Anyway here it is.

Update 17: Kanneldingen

After a lot of terraforming for the "village" I had in my mind for this competition I played it a bit only to find out - nah, no village, small town with 3000+ plus inhabitants. So a second idea, a second approach was necessary - and here it is.

Funny enough it's the direct neighbour map of my Simforum village comp village Leonhardt; however I made the layout for Leonhardt for today whereas Kanneldingen takes place somewhere in the first half of the seventies, in the time, small Nardo went to Kindergarden, the time of the last steam trains before the era of the steam engines finished for good in Western Germany. Yes, Western Germany, as the wall and the Iron Curtain would fall approximately 15-17 years later ...



Now for the duty: Overview of Leonhardt with all the required landmarks.



Not only the budget but also four of the six landmarks can be seen here. You may call this economy ...  



The village center with the town hall, Church St. Georg and its cemetary and the village plaza. The representive building to the left of the plaza is the Hotel "Kurfürstlicher Hof", a rather old one. It is run by the family Kannbacher since 1563 who took over an old post station. After a fire in 1759 it was rebuilt in its current barocque style.
One of the last communistic town mayors in Germany was Anton Kannbacher, younger brother of the landlord of the "Kurfürstlicher Hof". He was mayor from 1924 to January 1933. He got arrested soon after the Nazis took over the power and was deported to the KZ Dachau where he died in 1936. During his time the statue of Lenin was erected in 1930. Destroyed in 1937 the statue was reerected by his son Thomas Kannbacher who was town mayer from 1946 untill his death in 1962.


Leading from the main road from the church to the railway station (and Kanneldings bit of industry) you'll find the "Shopping Mile" of Kanneldingen:

• across the "Kurfürstlicher Hof" the department store "Müller" where you can buy almost everything from a nail to a motorbike
• the Esso and the Shell Station of the Hanselmann Brothers. They couldn't find a solution to whom the gas station of their father belonged after his death so they split up the lot and opened a gas station each...
• Willy's Bierrampe, a (not so) good place to drink a (or a lot more) beer in the evenings
• right next to Willy's the "Goldene Ochse" is most probably the best restaurant in a medium range. It features even a star in the Guide Michelin!
• brand new at the gates of the town lies the Kaufland, the first big supermarket in the area. It has opened last year and is the declared enemy of Herbert Müller, owner of the department store "Müller"

The soccer field of the SC 1911 Kanneldingen is situated right between the railway line and the cemetary. Noone ever counted how many balls went into the graveyard or the Rennbach but most probably not too much as the SC never one any title in his history ...
Bad people say that the doctor (the house next to the cemetary) has a perfect view to his future patients (from the soccer field) and already gone patients (on the cemetary) from his window ...


Nostalgia looks best in b/w ...
A steam train is passing the entry signal of Kanneldingen heading to Leonhardt. Steam train, semaphores, telegraph lines, signs of an era long gone ...


The Rennbach Valley. During the erection of the railway line in 1865 and later of the road in the thirties the Rennbach lost more and more of his natural bed and became rather channelized due to a lack of space.



The level crossing of the L301 with the railway line is secured by a block post. The semaphores can be opened only after the level crossing is secured. Nothing works automatically here, the blockpost (the small house next to the level crossing) must be filled with a person who handles both level crossings and semaphores during the time of train traffic!



Leaving Kanneldingen into the hills you don't see much special - just farms & forrests. Hey, what do you expect - it's the countryside!



This is what you call an Aussiedlerhof. The farmer has given up its farm buildings in the village and moved to the fields. His employes are living in the small houses next to the farm.
No bus stop here, have a car or walk - it's the countryside!



That's it for today. Next update will be "new" old stuff ...   

Untill then

Have fun!


Bernhard 

[SeanSC4]

There is so much to enjoy in this update! I really like the rolling farmlands. Perfect! Excellent job with the roadway and rail along the river too.

[n_wilson]

You are such a great landscape designer! Well done. So much to see.

[rooker1]

I see your point Bernhard....that definately was below your recent standards. 
But not below mine.  It's always a pleasure to view your work, new or old.  It just goes to prove that with a little (in some cases, like mine, ALOT) practice everyone can improve.

Robin 

[WC_EEND]

I agree with what most of the the other people here say. but it sure still surpasses my rural landscaping skills (iI've always been more of a city kind of guy )

and ofcourse for old time's sake: (can't even remember how long it's been since I last used it xD)

[canyonjumper]

Great update Bernhard! The detailing was still excellent, and the town layout looks good

                    -Jordan

[Nardo69]

Update 18: Kanneldingen - Some additional Pics

Like Leonhardt there'S an update with some pics that didn't made it into the final selection or just didn't belong ro a competition entry but may be interesting in a "normal" update.

But before we start:

SeanSC4: Thanks for the compliment! Actually that part was the most tricky one ...

n_wilson: Thanks for the compliment!

rooker1: Robin, that's the reason why I was hesitating a bit to go on like this ...  Next update will be even more historic but nevertheless interesting as I am going to show this way how I developed my way of making forests!

WC_EEND: WC_EEND is banned for being a city kind of guy! 
Actually that's ok - you know I am never as satisfied with my urban areas as I am with my rural ones   

canyonjumper: Thanks Jordan! Hope I can show you some details today!

OK, not much historic backgrounds, this time some last pictures untill we are going on going back in time ...



A "naked" overview. Usually my small maps look like that before I go into detailing. On medium and large maps I have some initials cells and developement axis that I go along developing my town. A bit like Natural growth in fact...



For an advance like this I need 1-3 session depending on daily form, available time and difficulty level of the terrain.



The Presignal of the Block Post. Hidden in the picture you may find some of my typical LE works: small lots adapted to certain locations. I just forgot the sawtooth ... 



There has been a time when Pedrianas caused hysteria and made so much city builders look for the No-Pedriana - mod. But since I have enough other stage 3 farms I can see no problem with one or the other pedriana popping up from time to time - compared with the pedriana the forgotten sawtooth is much worse!



I haven't showed it much: the farms on the other side of the Rennbachs.
The high voltage powerline wouldn't be necessary but I like to use them as landscape forming details



The edge of Kanneldingen and the railway line to Leonhardt.



I like that ensemble. And I said it before: the ingame water tower is perfect for use at railway stations!
If you look closely you can see that this is an early screenshot ...



Again the railway station. On one side residentials ...



... on the other side some industrials at the edge of the village. I saw layouts like this rather often IRL.



Because of its benefitial location: The doctor's house.



And to close for today a closeup with some homes.

That's it for today, next time will be more "historical" ...

Have fun!

Bernhard 

[canyonjumper]

Great update, Papa Nardo! I really like the area by the river, especially 18-02. There's something in all the wide radius curves and retaining walls that makes it all look great. Are you using PEG's Tahoe water? Or something else?

                 Your friend,
                                Jordan

[Battlecat]

It's nice to see some of your older work!  It's all still very good quality, you do have a great eye for the detailing!

[Tomas Neto]

Yeah... another fantastic update!!! Really great!!!

[art128]

Excellent update, Bernhard !

Fantastic work with the railway, it certainly the thing I like the most here. Your railway (and the details you put around it) is the most realistic I have seen ever. I wish I could make the same things..    (I'll go to read again your thoughts about the game... )

Take care,
-Arthur.

[Nardo69]

I warned you before, you wanted though, now don't complain. Today it is going to be historical as we go "back in time" back to the time when I started my developement away from the tree controlloer into MM trees. I showed some pictures from this map in several "Show us..." threads, one of those even made it into the SFBW HoF!

As always answes & replies first:

canyonjumper: Thanks for the compliment my friend!
Yes, this must be Tahoe, it became my favorite non-transparent PW when I had to put it under several NAM bridges on another map where the -compatible!- old extenders came in really handy!

Battlecat: Glad you like it my friend! Hope you like today's, too, it's even older ... 

Tomas Neto: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

art128: Thanks for the compliment my friend!
Actually I must confess that there had been a time where I haven't used all my knowledge and experience about RR at all - it has been Digby that woke up my railway heart. Since then so much things I missed came, and even though I did a little bit of railway in SC4 my ToDo - list is still rather fulll ...


And now without further ados:

Update Nr. 19: Klemmbach - A Creek, A Gorge, Railways And A Bridge

I workd on this small map severall months with some breaks, my forresting technique found its origin here. Therefore this update is as historic as docmentary! 



The overview with the most important roads and the railway line. I had the catenary mod (alpha, not available) in my plagin as I came from another map yet I never intended to have catenaries on this map!

I always intended to have a small valley for creek here, however it shouldn't have been that deep. The reason for the gorge lies in the neighbour map (which will be shown in another update!)



When I made this setup I just discovered the TPW ...



Further on upon the river you'll find another bridge (which means that the update title is not so correct), however this is a small road bridge and as such not as important as the railway bridge.



The road leading from the bridge to the village with the same name as the creek. Well, the fields are a tad steep, but you can find fields like these in the hills ...



The railway station Klemmbach. The signals are put in approach as the railway station is only equipped with personal in rush hours or by special demand. Setups like this have been usual in the seventies and eighties ...



Same railway station different angle. The village stretches a bit along the side of the valley, but don't ask me why it seems I never made any screenshot of it ... 



A train on the bridge. One of those rare pics that survived 5 rounds in the SFBW picture competiton.
BTW: Picture Nr. is 17.6 ...



On the other side of the valley on the support of the bridge you'll find the entry signal of Klemmbach and the pre signal of the following station.



The gorge, the place where I started using MM trees instead of the tree controller for larger areas



The view from fields above the Klemmbach gorges shows armfields, woods, roads and a bridge, you don't find much more here ...
If you follow the road that leaves the picture in the upper left corner ...



... you'll reach quite fast the underpath at the entry signal of Klemmbach station we saw already in 19.5a.
The main road passes at Neurod without touching the small village that is connected to the big worlds only by some small streets and paths.



The other head of the railway station Neurod. Even in this small village you can find some industry ...



The "CBD" of Neurod with the village church and the village shop, The tower of the little church is from the 16th century, all other buildings are much younger and not really important at all ...



Some closeups around Neurod.



The (chronological) last wood is a tree controller wood enriched and enhanced by MM trees. You'll see more of it in the next update!



And finally the latest overview of Klemmbach. As soon as I can fire up Sc4 again and can lay my finger on a certain treasure I am going to do a visit here ...

Untill next time - less historical than this time but still documentary

Have fun!

Bernhard 

[Girafe]

A beautiful countryside Nardo 

little german village is very good and you are a master concerning railway  even if steam engine is a little bit old for me   

ps : I haven't seen the red 2cv ^^